20 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Cerastium pumilum of Curtis. 



of the "glair-cells" and nucleus in both species: a, a, glair- 

 cells; b, nucleus. 

 Fig. 18. Cryptoglena angulosa, vertical view ; about 8-5460ths of an inch 

 long ; showing eye -spot, starch-cell, and double contracting 

 vesicle : a, lateral view, showing the irregularities of the lorica ; 

 b, quaternary division before separation ; c, ditto after separation 

 of the daughter-cells ; d, remains of old lorica ; e, internal cell 

 of ditto. 



II. — On the Cerastium pumilum of Curtis. 

 By Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.R.S. &c. 



It is now many years since a little Cerastium was noticed near 

 Croydon by Mr. Dickson, and a figure and description of it as 

 C. jmmilum published in the beautiful ' Flora Londinensis^ of 

 Curtis. No English botanist seems to have had any practical 

 knowledge of it from that time to the present ; and scarcely any 

 have seen specimens. As Smith (Eng Fl. ii. 331) considered it 

 to be a variety of C. semidecandrum, it is clear that he can never 

 have seen the plant ; for it is not to be supposed that he could 

 overlook the great difference of their bracts and sepals. Withering 

 (Bot. Arr. ed. 3. 435) simply quotes the remarks of Curtis. 

 Abbot, who includes it in his ^ Fl. Bedford.^ (p. 102), and names 

 as localities " Ampthill and Aspley," says nothing by means of 

 which we may form an opinion of the correctness of his nomen- 

 clature; and Smith, although quoting Abbot, does not name 

 those localities. Having obtained authentic specimens of this 

 little plant, I endeavoured, in the year 1837, to remove some 

 portion of this obscurity (Mag. Zool. & Bot. ii. 318), but without 

 much success ; for in Hooker^s ' British Flora^ (ed. 4), published 

 in the course of the following year, although my paper is quoted, 

 the C. pumilum is placed as synonymous with C. semidecandrum, 

 without the slightest remark. 



In the sixth and seventh (Dr. Arnott's) editions of the same 

 work, this plant is suspected to be "a pentandrous or early- 

 flowering state" of C. viscosum (C triviale). It is manifest that 

 the writer of that remark, which may be traced back to Mr. W. 

 Wilson (Brit. Fl. ed. 1. 214), had never taken much notice of the 

 young state of C. triviale, for it has a very slight resemblance to 

 C. pumilum, and a very different kind of pubescence ; the latter 

 is also one of the plants classed as Fugaces by Fries. It rises 

 from seed in the early spring, and has shed its own seeds and 

 died before (often long before) midsummer. C. triviale is 

 perennial, or at the very least biennial, and continues to flower 

 until the autumn is far advanced. My friend the Rev. W. W. 

 Newbould has directed my attention to another very valuable 

 distinction between C. pumilum and C. triviale, which is found 



